YOUNGSTOWN — Bond was set at $450,000 during the arraignment hearing Wednesday in Youngstown Municipal Court for Will A. Jones, 59, on 18 arson charges involving seven fires.

Fourteen of the charges are first-degree felonies, which are punishable by up to 11 years in prison if convicted. He also has three lower level felony arson charges and one misdemeanor arson charge.

His attorney pleaded not guilty on Jones’ behalf to the misdemeanor, and no plea was given on the felonies.

Jones was video arraigned before Magistrate Meghan Brundege, and Jones did not have to say anything during the hearing. He will have additional hearings — a pretrial on the misdemeanor and preliminary hearings on the 17 felonies at 9:15 a.m. Friday.

He is accused of setting fires to three homes between Nov. 21 and Nov. 25 in the city. There were eight people home at the time in a fire Jones is accused of setting on Willis Avenue Nov. 22. Four people were home in a fire Jones is accused of starting on Oak Hill Avenue Nov. 23. And two people were at home in a fire Jones is accused of starting on Woodland Avenue on Nov. 23 — all on the South Side.

A first-degree felony of aggravated arson was filed in each of those three fires for each of the 14 people in the homes. It appears that no one was injured in any of the fires.

Jones also is accused of starting four car fires, two Nov. 22, causing over $1,000 in damage to each car; and two involving vehicles Nov. 25.

A Youngstown police report released Friday stated that Jones was taken to jail Nov. 26 after he admitted that he had committed several arsons. Jones is a suspect in seven arsons involving seven crime scenes, said Youngstown Fire Investigator Chris Hodge.

Jones was arrested on an alleged probation violation involving an earlier arson conviction and the 18 Youngstown arson charges Nov. 26 at the Western Reserve Transit Authority bus station at 340 W. Federal St. downtown.

Hodge said it appears that Jones did not have any connections to Youngstown and may have been sent here to transition back into the community after being released from prison in late July.

Jones was staying at the Carter House Men’s Recovery House at 27 Willis Ave. at the time of the fires, according to court documents.

Ohio prison records state that Jones was scheduled for release from the Ohio prison system last July after serving a nine-year prison sentence on two counts of aggravated arson out of Cuyahoga County. He had been imprisoned in the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville before being released.

Jones was convicted of setting a fire on Guthrie Avenue in Cleveland on Aug. 3, 2016, according to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court records that also confirmed that Jones was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2017 on arson-related offenses.